Rob Mason looks at the golden jubilee of Sunderland’s first FA Youth Cup triumph and pin-points present day young talent hoping for a chance in the coming campaign.

One consequence of Sunderland’s relegation is that young home-grown players are more likely to have an important role to play as The Wearsiders look to bounce back to the top flight.

Sunderland’s Academy is often accused of not producing enough players but this summer’s sale of Jordan Pickford, for a fee which reportedly can rise up to £30m, shows that the red and white production line is continuing to produce the goods.

Jordan Henderson captains Liverpool and has captained England. He brought £16m into the club while Martyn Waghorn, Ben Alnwick and Grant Leadbitter are other players to bring in seven figure fees since the Academy of Light opened in 2003.

Jack Colback, back in the Premier League now with Newcastle, earned selection for a full England squad, as did the two Jordans.

Academy product Lynden Gooch won full international honours for the USA last season and there were Under 21 call ups for the highly rated Sweden striker Joel Asoro and another goalkeeper in Poland’s Max Stryjek.

Local lad George Honeyman impressed sufficiently to earn a new contract while England Under 20 midfielder Elliott Embleton, striker Josh Maja, elegant midfielder Ethan Robson and defender Michael Ledger are amongst the other Sunderland youngsters all with ambitions to push first team claims in the campaign to come.

When Sunderland won the FA Cup in 1973 six of the eleven who played in the final had come through the ranks.

The nucleus of that side was honed in the Sunderland youth teams of the mid to late sixties.

Sunderland have contested three FA Youth Cup finals.

All were in the space of four seasons, with the first of the club’s two triumphs coming 50 years ago this year.

Billy Hughes, Dennis Tueart, Micky Horswill, Ritchie Pitt and Bobby Kerr all featured during these cup runs as did Colin Todd and Colin Suggett although they had left the club ahead of the 1973 triumph.

Another hero of that unforgettable day, Jim Montgomery, had also come through the ranks at his home town club.

Monty remains a leading light in the Sunderland Former Players’ Association who marked the 50th anniversary of the club’s first FA Youth Cup by hosting a dinner at the Stadium of Light.

This honoured not just the 1967 side but also the winners of 1969 and the finalists of ’66.

Colin Suggett captained the ’67 winners having become skipper in place of the man who would lift the FA Cup itself six years later.

Bobby Kerr would help Sunderland defeat Leeds at Wembley in due course but had broken his leg against the same club in the fifth round of the FA Cup a couple of months before the final of the first Youth Cup triumph.

Kerr had captained Sunderland in the final of 1966, lost on aggregate to Arsenal.

Suggett also appeared in the ’66 final. He went on to become the first player Sunderland ever sold for £100,000 and later had a spell as caretaker manager of Newcastle United.

Amongst his team-mates in the first final was future England international and Players’ Player of the Year Colin Todd.

The pair had already played in a national schoolboy final at Roker Park two years earlier for Chester le Street Boys.

On that occasion the Colins had come off second best to Erdington and Saltley who were captained by Stephen Lee. He turned out to be the losing Birmingham City skipper in the ’67 Youth final.

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Billy Hughes played in the finals of 1966, 1967 and 1973. He got the 1967 Youth Cup run off to a flying start with a hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Newcastle in the opening game and went on to score in the first leg of the final.

When he won the cup’s ‘big brother’ at Wembley six seasons later his fellow flying winger was Dennis Tueart. Tynesider Tueart was still a schoolboy during the ’67 run and having hit a screamer as Manchester United were beaten in the fifth round was the talk of his classmates after hitting the headlines in The Journal.

Seven of the 1967 FA Youth Cup final winners went on to make the first team at Sunderland but for some the Youth Cup proved to be the pinnacle of their football careers.

Keith Felton of Washington for instance played every one of the eight games it took to win the trophy but went on to spend 34 years in the Northumbria Constabulary, rising to the rank of Superintendent.

While the ‘67 final saw 1-0 wins in each leg, the final of 1969 against West Brom was much more dramatic.

Having lost the first game 3-0 at The Hawthorns not many gave Sunderland much chance but they turned on the style thrashing Albion 6-0 with a hat-trick from Paddy Lowrey. The visitors had two future stars in Asa Hartford and Len Cantello sent off.